Posted on 09/28/2018 7:18:53 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Kavanaugh’s powerful testimony may well end up changing the course of the Supreme Court, and of our politics. Brett Kavanaugh may have saved his Supreme Court confirmation with one of the most memorable statements in modern congressional history.
After his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, delivered a compelling, sympathetic performance earlier in the day, Kavanaugh entered the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with his chances hanging by a thread. Commentators speculated about how he’d inevitably be dumped by the GOP. Instead, he transformed his situation with a sustained exercise in righteous indignation as forceful and compelling, in its way, as Clarence Thomas’s attack on a “high-tech lynching” that saved his nomination in 1991.
Kavanaugh had been stilted and overly programmed prior to Thursday, including in his initial round of Senate hearings and in an interview with Fox News earlier in the week. But, after days of enduring a process of unprecedented nastiness, Kavanaugh didn’t hold anything back.
In his opening statement, he was personal about the devastating effects of the charges levied against him, both on his reputation and on his family. He was excoriating about how Ford’s allegation was handled by Senate Democrats, who sat on it until the last moment. He scorned the ridiculous charges that have been layered on since, including that he was party to gang rapes. He invoked all he had invested in public service and in his friendships over the years. He expressed regret, as he should, over juvenile references in his high-school yearbook. He acknowledged enjoying beer, as a teenager and still as an adult. And he was angry, very angry, at the Democrats who have attacked his integrity and welcomed any bottom-feeding allegation, including a grotesque smear dredged up publicity-hungry lawyer Michael Avenatti.
His face was distorted in fury, he had trouble composing himself, and at times he wept. This was an incredibly raw performance by the standards of Washington and especially by the standards of Senate confirmation hearings.
Immediately, the same opponents of Kavanaugh who have been portraying him as a monster took great umbrage that he’d be angry at being portrayed as a monster. Look, they said, he lacks a judicial temperament!
But how is a person who maintains his innocence supposed to react when a political party will credit any allegation against him, when swathes of the media presume his guilt, when every aspect of his teenage years — including notations in his yearbook — are used against him, when all the testimonials in his favor and his decades of spotless public service mean nothing?
Kavanaugh’s anger over these kinds of attacks says nothing about his jurisprudence. His extensive opinions as a D.C. Circuit Court judge are all carefully reasoned and written. His opinions on the Supreme Court, should he make it there, will no doubt be the same. Hearing a case or writing an opinion isn’t the same as defending your integrity in a high-stakes political showdown.
The most difficult challenge Kavanaugh had was pushing back on Christine Blasey Ford’s allegation that he sexually assaulted her in high school, without seeming harsh or dismissive. He didn’t contest that she was assaulted and expressed sympathy for her — in fact, in an emotional moment, he related how his daughter suggested praying for her. But he persuasively made the case that there isn’t evidence of her contention that he was the perpetrator. The four people Ford has named as being present at the party in question say they don’t recall it, and Kavanaugh’s calendar that served as something of a journal suggests he was often out of town or otherwise accounted for on summer weekends in 1982, the year of the alleged incident.
Brett Kavanaugh, like all Supreme Court nominees, has carefully calculated his way through his public career. But if he gets on the Court, it will be because he abandoned the usual constraints and showed the nation a powerfully human reaction to the attacks on him. His opening statement may well end up changing the course of the Supreme Court, and of our politics.
And he was 110%CORRECT in NAILING the Democrats for the DISGUSTING people they are!!
I think Ford’s testimony shows deceptiveness in that it sounds like somebody was writing a novel.
Abuse victims don’t use detailed, descriptive language such as:
“Both Brett and Mark were drunkenly laughing during the attack”
“Mark seemed ambivalent, at times urging
Brett on, and at times telling him to stop”
“we toppled over”
“pinballing off the walls on the way down”
Someone, whether Ford or someone else, wrote this as prose. Their mistake was not knowing how to make it sound real. I think they were probably trying to include detail because trauma victims are known to remember detail.
Only problem is, trauma victims don’t report their abuse like they’re writing a novel.
So should EVERY American
Whatta charade, “Dr.” Ford’s “testimony” SEARED in her memory, but the other details, either missing or debunked
So BK should be smeared for life, his family threatened, millions of dollars and hours wasted . . . Ford should be the one “investigated” for perjury, defamation, and mental illness
and she did not have all the pages.........
It was obvious that Ford had been heavily coached. I even wonder if she could have been hypnotized to implant her testimony, little-girl voice and demeanor.
I saw through Ford’s testimony in an instant. She was coached extensively, from looking up from your prepared statement constantly to the crocodile tears. It was so obviously fake.
“compelling, sympathetic performance”
“memorable statements”
It’s sad that the fate of people’s lives often depends on who can deliver better theater. Truth be damned. So little attention is paid to what we know and what we don’t know.
It was not Kavanaugh who claimed to be afraid of flying when that is clearly not the case.
It is not Kavanaugh who produced a list of potential witnesses, none of whom back up his account.
It is not Kavanaugh who took a highly contrived lie detector test and then could not remember who paid for it.
It was not Kavanaugh who scrubbed their social media accounts.
It was Ford, not Kavanaugh, engaging in such misdirections and at times outright lies. A clear tiebreaker, IMO, in who has veracity here and who does not.
All great points.
NO evidence or credible witnesses to back up her fairy tale!
Kavanaugh produces a genuine 36 year old calendar indicating his whereabouts as a HIGH SCHOOL teenager!
The worst mistake, other than getting a bad script writer for her testimony, was giving her that whiny voice. Who could listen to that for more than an hour?
Ford could have a future in Hollywood......acting.
Who gives a shi! about Ford. What is sad that Grassley call off the 9:30 vote for a communists Democrat filibuster and will hold the vote at 1:30 which will not happen. Grassley is useless.
Totally correct regarding Ford.
The Left/Dems, this morning, are trying to double down and go after Kavanaugh for not having a “judicial temperament” and their knickers are all in a knot because he put on brass knuckles before he dealt with their continued persecution yesterday. If Republicans would take a lesson from Judge Kavanaugh and Donald Trump, the Dems would not be nearly as effective in their search and destroy missions as they are now.
yea no kidding he should be angry. lets ford that train wreck of a woman Ford. Look at what they did by paying females to claim GANG RAPE at multiple parties.
This man, unlike the sleazeball pigs on the left, has dignity and honor. Notice not ONE FEMALE he’s ever worked with out of all those years came forward to say he’s a sexual harasser or nobody ever said that he’s had an affair.
He’s a clean cut man. The left has no clue what this means.
meant lets FORGET*
If he had just said “I am not bj klinton!”
It would be all over but the crying.
The Sore Loser Democrats are showing the country what they are made of this morning with their televised temper tantrum. Every time Blumenthal opens his mouth, a thousand votes change from Democrat to Republican.
The Democrats and others of their ilk (hello MSM) have come to believe that the men of this nation are happy eunuchs. Any display that shows that not every male has put his testicles in storage is met with shock and remonstration. Anger from such a man especially unsettles them. Righteous anger of Biblical proportions? Well that just can’t be allowed. To the battlements!
Anger is to be reserved for social justice’s harem. It is fine for marches against climate change. You can dress it up and put anti-fa mask or puddy hat on it. But personal anger in defense of your good name and your family and your beliefs is just proof that you are a tool of the patriarchy.
And not finding her a hairbrush.
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